Good news: Emily Sisson thinks she CAN excel on a hilly marathon course

So what do I take away from the article? One thing is this: not purely focusing on the marathon from here on out. I suspect this is good. Now, I realize that's what Kipchoge does. It seems to work in that case. There are various other examples who don't really train for and peak for any other events. However, there are some whom I respect who have written that your marathon will benefit from a 10k training cycle. Ritz and Hall are 2 who have suggested exactly that. Shorter was well-known for doing a lot of 5k-specific work.

Also, an interest in various marathons, including non-flat, non-time trial courses. Eliud has made similar claims, but not acted on them. I believe she will. In my opinion, it will make for a more impressive body of work, looking back a decade from now, if she can do what Keitany did. Mary could run very fast on a flat course in near-perfect conditions as well as win multiple New Yorks.

So what will we see in the near future? USATF and WC 10000 next year? Boston possibly before that, or is that more likely post-Games? A late-winter or early-spring half would be great from a fan perspective.

Does she go for the Shorter double (10000 and marathon)? I haven't seen the Paris schedule, but there have been many times it was realistic and has been done.

How may ARs does she have eventually? 15k, 10M, 20k, HM, 25k all seem realistic and likely to me. Let's hear some of your thoughts.

I am less concerned with hills and more concerned with her running without pacers.

She has already made an Olympic team… and it wasn’t close…

She's made some smart career decisions. The best was to leave Wisconsin for Providence and Treacy.

She had a fkn pacer the entire race give me a break.

Kipchoge focuses on something other than the marathon?

Very important statement for me was she didn't know her time until she crossed the finish line. I'm sure hitting your splits when training can be encouraging. But at the race. Turn off your Garmin notifications and trust your ability to hit your goal.

Absolutely not. Does not consider any races of another distance. But it works, so you have to give some credence to the 100% pure marathon approach. Nevertheless, I stand by what I wrote, which is I believe there is merit in mixing it up.

In addition to what the others said, she's the American record holder. What world are you living in, dude?

I don't know, that's pretty dangerous advice in a marathon. Because early in the marathon the pace feels incredibly easy, but can and will come back to bite you if you go out too hard. So checking splits in the marathon is really about making sure you aren't running too fast too early rather than encouragement. At least for the first half or two-thirds. I could see not checking splits and just going off feel after that (granted you can feel good at 17 miles and still blow up in the last 5k).

As others said, Sisson in this case had a pacer the entire way, so she didn't have to worry about checking splits, just following him (I assume he was checking his watch). And in other races where it isn't a time trial record attempt like Chicago, elites may not check their watch because they're not really shooting for a certain time, they're racing to win or place as well as they can. But if your goal is a time, then it's crazy not to check your splits at least in the early stages of a marathon.

In the 10k. Thanks for the reading comprehension. I said never a marathon team. A hilly marathon is far different from Chicago.

Don't see much reason for Sisson to keep running on the track. She's now 31, which is older than Galen Rupp was when he ran his first marathon. Really, the only reason for her to do track is as a Plan B if she doesn't make a World/Olympic marathon.